I feel greatly honoured
that you should have invited me to enter the United States Senate
Chamber and address the representatives of both branches of Congress.
The fact that my American forebears have for so many generations
played their part in the life of the United States, and that here I
am, an Englishman, welcomed in your midst, makes this experience one
of the most moving and thrilling in my life, which is already long
and has not been entirely uneventful. I wish indeed that my mother,
whose memory I cherish across the vale of years, could have been here
to see. By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had
been American and my mother British, instead of the other way round,
I might have got here on my own. In that case, this would not have
been the first time you would have heard my voice. In that case I
should not have needed any invitation, but if I had, it is hardly
likely it would have been unanimous. So perhaps things are better as
they are. I may confess, however, that I do not feel quite like a
fish out of water in a legislative assembly where English is
spoken.

I am a child of the House of Commons. I was
brought up in my father's house to believe in democracy. 'Trust the
people' - that was his message. I used to see him cheered at meetings
and in the streets by crowds of working men way back in those
aristocratic Victorian days when, as Disraeli said, the world was for
the few, and for the very few. Therefore I have been in full harmony
all my life with the tides which have flowed on both side of the
Atlantic against privilege and monopoly, and I have steered
confidently towards the Gettysburg ideal of 'government of the people by the people for the
people'. I owe my advance entirely to
the House of Commons, whose servant I am. In my country, as in yours,
public men are proud to be the servants of the State and would be
ashamed to be its masters. On any

day, if they thought the people wanted it, the
House of Commons could by a simple vote remove me from my office. But
I am not worrying about it at all. As a matter of fact, I am sure
they will approve very highly of my journey here, for which I
obtained the King's permission in order to meet the President of the
United States and to arrange with him all that mapping-out of our
military plans, and for all those intimate meetings of the high
officers of the armed services of both countries, which are
indispensable to the successful prosecution of the war.

I should like to say first of all how much I
have been impressed and encouraged by the breadth of view and sense
of proportion which I have found in all quarters over here to which I
have had access. Anyone who did not understand the size and
solidarity of the foundations of the United States might easily have
expected to find an excited, disturbed, self-centred atmosphere, with
all minds fixed upon the novel, startling and painful episodes of
sudden war as they hit America. After all, the United States
have

been attacked and set upon by three most
powerfully armed dictator States. The greatest military power in
Europe, the greatest military power in Asia, German and Japan, Italy,
too, have all declared, and are making, war upon you, and a
quarrel

is opened, which can only end in their
overthrow or yours. But here in Washington, in these memorable days,
I have found an Olympian fortitude which, far from being based upon
complacency, is only the mask of an inflexible purpose and the
proof

of a sure and well-grounded confidence in the
final outcome. We in Britain had the same feeling in our darkest
days. We, too, were sure in the end all would be well. You do not, I
am certain, underrate the severity of the ordeal to which you and we
have still to be subjected. The forces ranged against us are
enormous. They are bitter, they are ruthless. The wicked men and
their factions who have launched their peoples on the path of war and
conquest know that they will be called to terrible account if they
cannot beat down by force of arms the peoples they have assailed.
They will stop at nothing. They have a vast accumulation of war
weapons of all kinds. They have highly trained,disciplined armies,
navies, and air services. They have plans and designs which have long
been tried and matured. They will stop at nothing that violence or
treachery can suggest.

It is quite true that, on our side, our
resources in man-power and materials are far greater than theirs. But
only a portion of your resources is as yet mobilised and developed,
and we both of us have much to learn in the cruel art of war. We have
therefore, without doubt, a time of tribulation before us. In this
time some ground will be lost which it will be hard and costly to
regain. Many disappointments and unpleasant surprises await
us.

Many of them will afflict us before the full
marshalling of our latent and total power can be accomplished. For
the best part of twenty years the youth of Britain and America have
been taught that war is evil, which is true, and that it would never
come again, which has been proved false. For the best part of twenty
years the youth of Germany, Japan and Italy have been taught that
aggressive war is the noblest duty of the citizen, and that it should
be begun as soon as the necessary weapons and organisation had been
made. We have performed the duties and tasks of peace. They have
plotted and planned for war. This, naturally, has placed us in
Britain and now places you in the United States at a disadvantage,
which only time, courage and strenuous, untiring exertions can
correct.

We have indeed to be thankful that so much time
has been granted to us. If Germany had tried to invade the British
Isles after the French collapse in June 1940, and if Japan had
declared war on the British Empire and the United States at about the
same date, no one could say what disasters and agonies might not have
been our lot. But now at the end of December 1941, our transformation
form easy-going peace to total war efficiency has made very great
progress. The broad flow of munitions in Great Britain has already
begun. Immense strides have been made in the conversion of American
industry to military purposes, and now that the United States are at
war it is possible for orders to be given every day which a year or
eighteen months hence will produce results in war power beyond
anything that has yet been seen or foreseen in the dictator States.
Provided that every effort is made, that nothing is kept back, that
the whole man-power,

brain power, virility, valour and civic virtue
of the English-speaking world with all its galaxy of loyal, friendly,
associated communities and States - provided all that is bent
unremittingly to the simple and supreme task, I think it would be
reasonable to

hope that the end of 1942 will see us quite
definitely in a better position than we are now, and that the year
1943 will enable us to assume the initiative upon an ample
scale.

Some people may be startled or momentarily
depressed when, like your President, I speak of a long and hard war.
But our peoples would rather know the truth, sombre though it be. And
after all, when we are doing the noblest work in the world, not only
defending our hearths and homes but the cause of freedom in other
lands, the question of whether deliverance comes in 1942, 1943 or
1944 falls into its proper place in the grand proportions of human
history. Sure I am that this day - now we are the masters of our
fate; that the task which has been set us is not above our strength;
that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we
have faith in our cause and an unconquerable will-power, salvation
will not be denied us. In the words of the Psalmist, <I>'He
shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in
the Lord.' </I>Not all the tidings will be evil.

On the contrary, mighty strokes of war have
already been dealt against the enemy; the glorious defence of their
native soil by the Russian armies and people have inflicted wounds
upon the Nazi tyranny and system which have bitten deep, and will
fester and inflame not only in the Nazi body but in the Nazi mind The
boastful Mussolini has crumbled already. He is now but a lackey and
serf, the merest utensil of his master's will. He has inflicted great
suffering and wrong upon his own industrious people. He has been
stripped of his African empire, Abyssinia has been liberated. Our
armies in the East, which so weak and ill-equipped at the moment of
French desertion, now control all the regions from Teheran to
Benghazi, and from Aleppo and Cyprus to the sources of the
Nile.

For many months we devoted ourselves to
preparing to take the offensive in Libya. The very considerable
battle, which has been proceeding for the last six weeks in the
desert, has been) fiercely fought on both sides. Owing to the
difficulties of supply on the desert flanks, we were never able to
bring numerically equal forces to bear upon the enemy. Therefore, we
had to rely upon a superiority in the numbers and quality of tanks
and aircraft, British and American. Aided by these, for the first
time, we have fought the enemy with equal weapons. For the first time
we have made the Hun feel the sharp edge of those tools with which he
had enslaved Europe. The armed forces of enemy in Cyrenaica amounted
to about 150,000, of whom out one-third were Germans. General
Auchinleck set out to destroy totally that armed force. I have every
reason to believe that his aim will be fully accomplished. I am glad
to be able to place before you, members of the Senate and of the
House of Representatives, at this moment when you are entering the
war, proof that with proper weapons and proper organisation we are
able to beat the life out of the savage Nazi. What Hitler is engaging
in Libya is only a sample and foretaste of what we must he him and
his accomplices, wherever this war shall lead us, in every quarter of
the globe.

There are good tidings also from blue water.
The life-line of supplies which joins our two nations across the
ocean, without which all might fail, is flowing steadily and freely
in spite of all enemy can do. It is a fact that the British Empire,
which they thought eighteen months ago was broken and ruined, is now
incomparably stronger, and is growing stronger with every month.
Lastly, if you will forgive me for saying it, to me the best tidings
of all is that the United States, united as never before, have drawn
the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard. All these
tremendous facts have led the subjugated peoples of Europe to lift up
their heads again in hope. They have put aside ever the shameful
temptation of resigning themselves to the conqueror's will. Hope has
returned to the hearts of scores of millions of men and women, and
with that hope there burns the flame of anger against the brutal,
corrupt invader, and still more fiercely burns the fires of hatred
and contempt for the squalid Quislings whom he has suborned. In a
dozen famous ancient States now prostrate under the Nazi yoke, the
masses of the people of all classes and creeds await the hour of
liberation, when they too will be able once again to play their part
and strike their blows like men. That hour will strike, and its
solemn peal will proclaim that the night is past and that the dawn
has come.

The onslaught upon us so long and so secretly
planned by Japan has presented both our countries with grievous
problems for which we could not be fully prepared. If people ask me -
as they have a right to ask me in England - why is it that you have
not got ample equipment of modern aircraft and Army weapons of all
kinds in Malaya and in the East Indies, I can only point to the
victories General Auchinleck has gained in the Libyan campaign. Had
we diverted and dispersed our gradually growing resources between
Libya and Malaya, we should have been found wanting in both theatres.
If the United States have been found at a disadvantage at various
points in the Pacific Ocean, we know well that it is to no small
extent because of the aid you have been giving us in munitions for
the defence of the British Isles and for the Libyan campaign, and,
above all, because of your help in the battle of the Atlantic, upon
which all depends, and which has in consequence been successfully and
prosperously maintained. Of course it would have been much better, I
freely admit, if we had enough resources of all kinds to be at full
strength at all threatened points; but considering how slowly an
reluctantly we brought ourselves to large-scale preparations, and how
long such preparations take, we had no right to expect to be in such
a fortunate position.

The choice of how to dispose of our hitherto
limited resources had to be made by Britain in time of war and by the
United States in time of peace; and I believe that history will
pronounce that upon the whole - and it is upon the whole that these
matters must be judged - the choice made was right. Now that we are
together, now that we are linked in a righteous comradeship of arms,
now that our two considerable nations each in perfect unity, have
joined all their life energies in a common resolve, a new scene opens
upon which a steady light will glow and brighten.

Many people have been astonished that Japan
should in a single day have plunged into war against the United
States and the British Empire. We all wonder why, if this dark
design, with all its laborious and intricate preparations, had been
so long filling their secret minds, they did not choose our moment of
weakness eighteen months ago. Viewed quite dispassionately, in spite
of the losses we have suffered and the further punishment we shall
have to take, it certainly appears to be an irrational act. It is, of
course, only prudent to assume that they have made very careful
calculations and think they see their way through. Nevertheless,
there may be another explanation. We know that for many years past
the policy of Japan has been dominated by secret societies of
subalterns and junior officers of the Army and Navy, who have
enforced their will upon successive Japanese Cabinets and Parliaments
by the assassination of any Japanese statesman who opposed, or who
did not sufficiently further, their aggressive policy. It may be that
these societies, dazzled and dizzy with their own schemes of
aggression and the prospect of early victories, have forced their
country against its better judgment into war. They have certainly
embarked upon a very considerable undertaking. For after the outrages
they have committed upon us at Pearl Harbour, in the Pacific Islands,
in the Philippines, in Malaya, and in the Dutch East Indies, they
must now know that the stakes for which they have decided to play are
mortal.

When we consider the resources of the United
States and the British Empire compared to those of Japan, when we
remember those of China, which has so long and valiantly withstood
invasion and when also we observe the Russian menace which hangs over
Japan, it becomes still more difficult to reconcile Japanese action
with prudence or even with sanity. What kind of a people do they
think we are? Is it possible they do not realise that we shall never
cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson
which they and the world will never forget? Members of the Senate and
members of the House of Representatives, I turn for one moment more
from the turmoil and convulsions of the present to the broader basis
of the future. Here we are together facing a group of mighty foes who
seek our ruin; here we are together defending all that to free men is
dear. Twice in a single generation the catastrophe of world war has
fallen upon us; twice in our lifetime has the long arm of fate
reached across the ocean to bring the United States into the
forefront of the battle. If we had kept together after the last War,
if we had taken common measures for our safety, this renewal of the
curse need never have fallen upon us.

Do we not owe it to ourselves, to our children,
to mankind tormented, to make sure that these catastrophes shall not
engulf us for the third time? It has been proved that pestilence may
break out in the Old World, which carry their destructive ravages
into the New World, from which, once they are afoot, the New World
cannot by any means escape. Duty and prudence alike command first
that the germ-centres of hatred and revenge should be constantly and
vigilantly surveyed and treated in good time, and, secondly, that an
adequate organisation should be set up to make sure that the
pestilence can be controlled at its earliest beginnings before it
spreads and rages throughout the entire earth.

Five or six years ago it would have been easy,
without shedding a drop of blood, for the United States and Great
Britain to have insisted on fulfilment of the disarmament clauses of
the treaties which Germany signed after the Great War; that also
would have been the opportunity for assuring to German those raw
materials which we declared in the Atlantic Charter should not be
denied to any nation, victor or vanquished. That chance has passed.
It is gone. Prodigious hammer-strokes have been needed to bring us
together again, or if you will allow me to use other language, I will
say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some
great purpose and design is being worked out here below, of which we
have the honour to be the faithful servants. It is not given to us to
peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and
faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and
American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all
walk together side by side in majesty, in justice and in peace.